so, does the summary mean literally or does it just mean the unicorns can't do any other magic all day or longer till their magic recovers at which point they have to do it again?

You know the sad thing? Had Snips and company been sent to a less* punishing dungeon to start with, Snips likely would have lived and grown from the experience. But the Courtyard is an unforgiving and brutal place and going into there... no matter how well equipped or prepared the party, someone is going to die.

Sadly, this time it happened to be Snips to pay the price.

For what it's worth, I don't see him haunting Blueblood... at the very least, not in the same way as the other ghosts that have been haunting his sleeping hours. After all, Blueblood didn't kill Snips like he did the others... and the only reason that Snips was there was because of his own choices. However, guilt for sending someone far too young to an early and brutal grave is a completely different burden to bare.

Still, I would like to see a ghostly Snips who's just softly and quietly asking Blueblood 'Could you please send a letter to my mother to tell her that I'm sorry? I thought I was ready to go out into the world and be an amazing adventurer and make it a better place but... I was wrong. Also, tell Snails that I'm sorry too...' Not blaming him for his death but... haunting him in a different painful way.

9730815
Given that this is a dark horror version of MLP, I don't think he'd change it to be *less* horrifying than the canon version, where they lost their magic forever.

9731373
I don't remember that part in canon, then again I don't watch the show. I heard it was 100 unicorns working together every day and only being able to do that and spending the rest of the day/night recovering enough magic to raise/lower the sun/moon.

9730815
9731385
In the episode Horse Play, they spell out that Starswirl helped the other unicorns raise the sun and moon each day, and that those unicorns used so much power that they lost their magic forever.

9731373
Foreverrrrrrrrrr!

9731059
That, is one Tartarus of a supposition to make. I’ve lost characters on novice dungeons before, all it takes sometimes is a single crit with a bleed or blight effect. But you are quite correct in your statement about the Crimson Court being an entirely different beast. First time I ever played the court, I fought my party through to the end, everyone was fine, and then... my party faced the Crocodilian? Total Party Wipe.

9731444
As I said, I don't watch the show.

9731444
Oh, I get what you mean. Sometimes shit does happen but.... let's face it, his odds would have been much better if he hadn't needed to face something like the Crocodilian. That bloody thing and the Court has claimed more adventures in my games then the other dungeons combined.

“We got so little family left, big brother,” she wept into his chest.

Dare I ask what state Apple Bloom is in? Granny Smith? Heck, given the sheer quantity of Apples in canon, the thought of the line being almost extinct is a truly chilling one.

Mind you, the Batman slap immediately before actually did a lot to raise the mood after the gruesomeness of Snips's death.

In any case, I'm still here. I want to see where you go from here, especially if Fluttershy implies what I think she does.

9732470
Arg! I don’t know how that missed editing. It’s supposed to be “all we’ve got is each other now.” Well, I’m fixing that.

Somehow, I knew Snips would die. And I didn't think the story would have the balls to have Mac die too... which it did not.

Here's to Snips ... he died how he lived ... by getting in over his head and crying for his mother. Honestly I could have seen a similar fate to Snails here too. I can't tell yet if Rainbow Dash is going to be that character that routinely gets her butt kicked but keeps inexplicably pulling through well past the sell by date or gets it in some off kilter way. I'll have to continue reading.

Finally Blueblood shouldn't be too upset about this inevitability ... after all you have to break open a few Colts to get to that sweet sweet alcohol ... nectar of life ... it's not a problem!

Damn this is still such a good chapter. The brutality and intensity of the mission really sell the atmosphere.